Linscomb Wealth Inc. Invests $2.09 Million in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Linscomb Wealth Inc. bought a new position in shares of F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 9,509 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,094,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Empirical Finance LLC raised its holdings in shares of F5 by 2.3% in the third quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 2,049 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $451,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. grew its stake in F5 by 2.9% in the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 2,030 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $447,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC grew its stake in F5 by 4.9% in the second quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC now owns 1,353 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $233,000 after purchasing an additional 63 shares during the last quarter. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. grew its stake in F5 by 0.6% in the first quarter. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. now owns 11,531 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $2,186,000 after purchasing an additional 64 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Profund Advisors LLC grew its stake in F5 by 6.3% in the second quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 1,185 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $204,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. 90.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on FFIV shares. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price target on F5 from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on F5 from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on F5 from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $233.56.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou sold 1,450 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $218.26, for a total value of $316,477.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 121,122 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,436,087.72. This trade represents a 1.18 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $217.67, for a total value of $130,602.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 29,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,492,007.75. This represents a 1.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 4,250 shares of company stock worth $897,594 in the last quarter. 0.58% of the stock is owned by insiders.

F5 Stock Performance

FFIV opened at $238.36 on Friday. F5, Inc. has a one year low of $159.01 and a one year high of $250.46. The company has a market cap of $13.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.93, a PEG ratio of 3.34 and a beta of 1.05. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $222.72 and its 200-day simple moving average is $194.07.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.45 by $0.22. The firm had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $730.43 million. F5 had a return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 20.13%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.76 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase program on Monday, October 28th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the network technology company to purchase up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

F5 Profile

F5, Inc provides multi-cloud application security and delivery solutions in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific region. The company’s distributed cloud services enable its customers to deploy, secure, and operate applications in any architecture, from on-premises to the public cloud.